Page Last Updated: October 16, 2025

Baby's First Years🔗

Table Name:
sed_bm_bfy
Full Name:
Baby’s First Years (BFY)
Construct:
Benefits/Services, Economic Stress

Administration & Quality Control🔗

Child Specific No
Respondent Parent
Administration HBCD Study Staff, in person
Visits V01, V05, V07
Completion Time 4 min
Quality Control Data dashboard was monitored for variable missingness, possible coding errors, scoring verification when needed, and data consistency.

Instrument Details🔗

The HBCD BFY includes a selection of questions from the BFY Age 1 Survey Instrument. Baby’s First Years is an NIH-funded study of infant and child development and assesses economic stress (originally sourced from the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) study), financial instability, ability to meet basic needs, and benefits/services received over the past 12 months on a 10-point Likert Scale (Noble et al. 2021).

HBCD Modification Details â–¸

Slight modifications were made for the HBCD study by removing the Medicaid coverage question (asked elsewhere in the study) as well as the following assessment and response option modifications:

Original Text Modified Text
I am going to read a list of services, government benefits, and support. Please tell me after each one if you receive it or not



  • Have you received any of these services in the past 12 months

  • Since [CHILDNAMEF]’s birth, have you EVER been forced to leave or were evicted from your home?



  • In the past 12 months, have you EVER been forced to leave or were evicted from your home?

  • References🔗

    Noble, K. G., Magnuson, K., Gennetian, L. A., Duncan, G. J., Yoshikawa, H., Fox, N. A., & Halpern-Meekin, S. (2021). Baby’s First Years: Design of a randomized controlled trial of poverty reduction in the United States. Pediatrics, 148(4), e2020049702. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2020-049702

    Sanbonmatsu, L., Marvakov, J., Potter, N. A., Yang, F., Adam, E. K., Congdon, W. J., Duncan, G. J., Gennetian, L. A., Katz, L. F., Kling, J. R., Kessler, R. C., Lindau, S. T., Ludwig, J., & McDade, T. W. (2012). The long-term effects of moving to opportunity on adult health and economic self-sufficiency. Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research, 14, 109-136.